Virtual  Jane Austen’s London  – the London of 1809

JANE AUSTEN’S ‘A PICTURE OF LONDON IN 1809’ VIRTUAL WALK
 Monday 27 January 2025 at 7.30 pm

Seeing and exploring the London as set out in a guidebook that Jane Austen might have thumbed through. A guidebook that is now 225 years old.

With the help of a contemporary Guide Book, Jane Austen’s  letters, and works we explore London in 1809

‘The Picture of London for 1809  Being a CORRECT GUIDE to all the Curiosities, Amusements, Exhibitions, Public Establishments,  and Remarkable Objects in and near London.’

This Guide Book to London might well have been on Henry Austen’s shelf when his sister, Jane, came to visit him in London.  But it enables us to tour the London that Jane Austen knew in some detail. We will look at the Curiosities as well as the shopping, residential,  theatres areas as well as the Port, the Parks and the Palaces.

The walk – 30 years* in the making – is a thank you to Alix Gronau, who, having been to one of my lectures in 1994, wanted the book to come to me.  I have had the book restored and am using it to explore London in 1809.

*Though you could also say that it’s been 215 years in the making.

Guided by Kevin